I love companies which aren’t afraid to be human. Companies whose philosophy is to try to make people happy, rather than trying to avoid making any unhappy. I’d rather have 50 customers who loved me than 100 who didn’t have any opinion, because I’m sure I could sell them more in the long run.
You may work for a more conservative organisation. If you come up with a marketing initiative which could divide opinion, your first thought might be to reject it because it could put a few people off, rather than to use it because it could turn a few people on. Fair enough; it’s a legitimate school of sports coaching which says: “don’t even think about the attack until you’ve got the defence right”. But don’t let your creativity and inspiration be stifled too much by the formality of business culture. This little story might inspire you.
Chris, an interesting point, especially for our company. We call ourselves SPLat Controls and we make very serious industrial electronics. Whenever I have the odd moment of self-doubt about the choice of name, I just remind myself that nobody ever forgets our name.
It’s also a great icebreaker when I’m trying to get past a tough telephonist and through to the Boss.
“I’m David from SPLat Controls”
“I BEG your pardon?”
“SPLat Controls. …. It’s OK, you’re allowed to laugh”
David Stonier-Gibson
Hi Chris,
I purposefully kept the name Pauley in our company name because of the joy it gives people to remind me what a silly name it is…
“Pauley Created?” they say and “Pauley Designed…are you sure?” fact is we all have a jolly good laugh about it and it does get remembered. In fact I had a well known industry evangelist ask if we’d met before because the name rang a bell with him! We hadn’t met but it was nice to think he’d heard of us – maybe it was just a very clever trick he uses to make me feel good.
Anyway, I also seem to get called ‘Paul’ a lot instead of ‘Nick’ which helps morale in the office too! “Hi… is Paul there, can I speak to Paul please?” How they laugh.
Nick Pauley